“There will be some world champions here,” Barrel Bash producer Jud Little said. “We draw a really high level of competitors.”

“We love the event. Jud puts on a great barrel race,” Kenna Squires of Fredonia, Texas, said. “It’s fun, and it’s a great facility.”

Competitors are expected from as far away as Alaska, Florida, Nova Scotia, Italy and Brazil, Little said. The event is so large participants have rented every horse stall on the coliseum grounds.

Barrel racing is a timed rodeo event where riders compete against the clock and each other. Basically, the riders and their horses enter the arena at full speed, ride as fast as they can around three preset barrels in a cloverleaf pattern and then exit the arena. A time penalty is assessed for each barrel that is knocked over. It is primarily an event for women, but both males and females compete.

“We’ll have kids as young as 5 or 6 up to people in their 80s,” Little said.

He said the Barrel Bash includes both futurity and 4D (four division) races. All of the estimated 2,000 runs will be in the coliseum’s indoor arena. The event is scheduled in conjunction with the 2008 Jud Little Barrel and Timed Event Horse Sale at 6 p.m. Saturday at Little’s Bar Nothin’ ranch in Springer.

This is the ninth year Little has produced a barrel race at the coliseum.

“It’s something I can do for Ardmore,” he said. “It brings a lot of people into Ardmore and the Hardy Murphy Coliseum. I’ve been around horses all my life. It’s something I really enjoy doing.”
Little said the races are free for spectators.